Got the blues

Brian Wagner

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Daily News photos/BRIAN WAGNER

"Mom, I want to buy Jake," Lauren Kreutzberg said while hanging out under her brother's hat in the horse barn Monday evening. "Start looking for more pennies," Lauren's mother Cathy said. After a horse camp, she was "bitten by the bug," she explained of her daughter's interest in riding. The Kreutzbergs are leasing a horse from Mystic Stables for Lauren to show at the fair.

From the cookie monsters of the midway to the watering buckets in the livestock barns, blue is everywhere. Lights flash it, people eat it and judges pass it out.

By Margaret Wegners count approximately 7,500 blue ribbons will be passed out to 4-Hers by the end of the week. Wegner, Midland County Fair Board president, has handed out her share of blue over the years.

Fairgoers are never out of sight of the blue. It can be seen hanging above prize pigs or take the shape of a mustache around a two-year-olds sugar-coated mouth. Even the portable toilets bear the blue.

Blue ribbons hold a special value for 4-Hers. Whether you're a grand champion or not, "in 4-H, you all can be first," Fair Board President Margaret Wegner said.

A blue macaw waves from the stage during the Wild World of Animals show. In the audience blue balloons reach for the blue sky above.

Blue jeans are the norm with the 4-Hers and the Lakefield Quilters even have a blue quilt to be raffled off.

Mrs. Powers can read your palms under her blue tent or you can try a blue snow cone to combat the heat.

On occasion, a child strolls by with the blues, but just as often one putts by in a blue Ford on the Central Park ride.

And as the evening swings into motion, the fog of the Twister ride transforms from red to blue and back again.

The "whole fair is fun," Wegner said. "I love it."

Rabbits find time to check each other out between judging in the small animal barn early on during the fair.